


A Hair's Breadth

by Mikasa361



Category: Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26272522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikasa361/pseuds/Mikasa361
Summary: A butterfly effect in which Alister had never actually been shot.Amanda had gone too far this time, and Lara is ready to take her down. The group takes base elsewhere, but not everyone is as eager to finish the job as Lara is. Especially a certain historian who has seen her burn herself out time and time and time again.But for Lara, it is imperative to keep everyone safe and reach her goal, no matter the cost.Even if that cost is her own sanity.
Kudos: 1





	A Hair's Breadth

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to AHB. This is a re-do of Narrowly Missed, which I abandoned due to lack of motivation, schoolwork, etc. Seeing as my last update for NM was in July of 2018, it's only fitting to have a fresh start. Either way, I hope you enjoy!

Lara hadn’t yet stopped shaking from the fact that someone she trusted had pointed a gun at her.

The Manor being on fire currently isn’t helping that.

Nor is the fact that Alister is still missing. 

And neither is this. 

Just as she approaches the computers to attempt to look at the security footage, she gets the familiar tingle up her spine and the dreadful feeling of another presence in the room. She turns to face the glass wall to see not Alister to her dismay, but rather a familiar silhouette. As she comes closer to the figure- she notices things that bother her more and more- the figure is feminine, around Lara’s height and build, and moving in a similar manner that she is---

The two meet face to face, and Lara’s heart immediately plummets into her stomach. “ _No_ ,” she breathes out, turning away for just a second. As she turns to face her clone, she takes out her pistol, copying the other’s movements.

And with his signature bad timing, Alister’s coughing becomes audible as he passes behind the doppelgänger, too focused on the fact that he can’t breathe to notice something else wrong. Until he comes closer, thinking the body double is Lara.

The doppelgänger turns quickly, and a shot rings out, causing Alister to yell and fall to the ground. 

“ **_NO_ **,” Lara cries as she turns to smash the button behind her. As quickly as she can, she aims to fire both her guns- which the lookalike expertly dodges as it disarms her from the left. Lara fires another shot from the pistol in her right hand before realizing the creature yet again dodged, and again until the doppelgänger knocks her arm down, grabs her by the hand and gives her two strong knees to the abdomen. Then a punch to the head, and before she realizes what happened, Lara is on the ground, the wind knocked out of her. 

Her clone stalks off, hopping up pieces of burning rubble and escaping before Lara can so much as return to her feet. 

_Damn._

She still hears coughing. 

Lara’s eyes dart to her right, and she notices Alister sitting upright, looking at himself and making sure he’s alright. “Alister,” she calls as she rushes to his side. Alister stops coughing for a few seconds, and Lara sighs with relief. Luckily, she saw no rosettes of blood from his clothing. He just looks shaken, and when he looks up at her his eyebrows raise.

“Lara! Was that… Was that _you_?”

“No,” the replies as she offers a hand to help him up. With a sigh of relief of his own, Alister takes it and gets back to his feet. “Thank God, you’re alright,” Lara says to him, “I know what set the Manor on fire- we need to get outside.”

“Bloody hell,” Alister mutters with another cough, putting his arm around Lara’s shoulders as they walk out of the burning mansion, barely dodging a piece of debris falling from the ceiling. Outside, the air is less suffocating, and the ash in the air thins the further they get from the building. It’s only when they reach Zip and Winston that Lara notices the pain in her stomach from the doppelgänger’s knee. She pays no mind to it while she watches Zip’s eyes light with relief that the two made it out alive. Alister, however, seems to still be shaken by the fact that he was a sneeze away from death.

“Oh thank God, Alister, you're okay!” Zip limped over to Alister and hugged him.

“And _you_ , good sir, need to get some medical treatment. Don't pretend I don't see that wound on your leg.”

“There will be time for that, man.”

“Bloody hell, Zip, you’ll bleed to death!”

“With that attitude, sure,” Zip replies with a wry smile. 

Lara shakes her head in reply. “No, Alister’s right. All three of you need to be sent to the hospital- I don’t know how long any of you have been in all of that smoke. You may need to be there until told otherwise. I’m contacting emergency services, make sure Zip’s wound is covered.” The pain in her stomach worsens, and she grimaces. Alister’s face expresses more concern than usual while Zip raises his eyebrow at her. 

“Hey… Hey Lara, you okay?”

“Nnnnn… I’m… Fine…” No she’s not. Lara turns away, walks a few steps away before instinctively spreading her feet apart, moving her torso forward while bracing her hands on her knees, and her stomach proceeds to throw its tantrum- whether from her injury or the airplane food is unclear. 

What is clear is that someone holds her ponytail away from her face. Mentally, she thanks whoever it is in advance. A little further behind her, she hears someone inhale sharply. That person is Zip, because soon it’s followed by, “Y’know, you might wanna see a doctor too. I don’t know what happened in there, but…”

"Yes, I need emergency services at the Croft residence in Abingdon? There has been an explosion. Yes, that’s correct. The address is…” Winston was already calling 112 on Zip’s phone when Lara’s stomach decided to calm itself. A hand proceeds to rub her back, as if it were going to help. Still, she has to admire the effort. She stands up straight.

“Hell,” she groans, turning to face Alister, whose eyebrows knit together. Lara waves him off. “Everything’s fine, I’m _fine_ , lads. It was just a few kicks to the abdomen.”

“By something clearly not human, Lara,” Alister chides, taking a step back and crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I’m with Alister on this one,” Zip chimes in while wincing as Winston applies more pressure on the wound. “Whatever kicked you clearly messed something up. ...What the hell was that? And why’d she shoot me?”

“It’s…” Lara shakes her head. “It’s something I’ve only encountered once, around twelve years ago.”

“Like… around the time you dealt with that Scion shit?” Zip asks with more of an edge to his voice. He’s starting to get an idea of what she’s talking about, but Alister is still lost.

“I remember a vague mention of a Scion but…”

“Natla, Alister. Natla is the one who created my doppelgänger, this time and last time. Only the issue is, this one is far more human in appearance… And it has a mind of its own,” Lara finishes, once again resting her hands on her knees.

“But…” Winston starts, “Why would Natla send it if she’s Amanda’s prisoner?”

“They’re a team of sorts, now. Amanda and Natla, her pet Atlantean god.” Lara says this entire thing with venom dripping off of her words and rolling her eyes. “And I’m going to go to Southern Mexico and grab Thor’s belt---”

“What?” Zip’s eyebrows rise to halfway up his forehead. “Lara, your childhood home just burned to the fucking ground,” his voice escalates as he looks at her in awe. “And it’s just… _business as usual_?”

Lara shakes her head. “Oh, I can grieve later. But I need Thor’s _belt_ to get his _hammer_ .” Lara’s voice rises as well with each word, “and I need the _hammer_ to kill a _god_.” She winces as her stomach lurches forward, but nothing happens this time. Winston watches her, his face written with worry. 

He walks towards her. “Lady Croft, you’re going to need to make sure you’re recovered before you go anywhere. And we need to think about residence---”

“I can ask my sister if she’s willing to let us shelter there until the manor is rebuilt… Or until we find a different place. Regardless, I can call her, she’d be alright helping us for the time being.”

“Oxford?”

“Near Merton Field, yes,” he says with a nod, “I’m not sure how many of us she can fit, but I can always see my parents or my brother if I have to.”

“Man, the perks of living near the family,” Zip sighed, “My mom’s been telling me for months to come home, but I told her I just can’t. If I told her Croft Manor was destroyed, she’d be begging me to take a flight back.” Lara sighed again. If her parents were here, they would have been upset. _Imagine if Uncle Errol came across this information, he’d be scrambling to get the inheritance from me. Bloody hell, if I start receiving legal documents, I’m going to cause a riot._

“As soon as I’m cleared,” Lara states as she hears the sirens in the distance, “I’m on the next flight out of here.”

“No,” Zip snaps, “You need to rest at least for a couple of days.”

“Zip, I can’t. I can have my remaining things placed in a bedroom, but I can’t just stay around and let Amanda get to the hammer first. I won’t give her the satisfaction.”

“Lara, you forget you have the gauntlets. Even if Amanda finds the belt, what the hell is she going to do with just that? Plus those gauntlets are for your hands and your hands only. AT this point, she’d just be holding the belt hostage, and everyone here knows how much you hate the word no.”

“He’s right,” Alister adds in, “you should take a few days, look for the location of the belt, and-”

“I have the maps, Alister. Photos of them. Father left them before he destroyed the map.”

“Then take a couple of days to study the map. Amanda has no idea where the belt is, and you do. When was the last time you were able to catch a break? I know I can’t recall. You’re always in and out, in and out, in and out.” He turns her to face him and carefully places his hands on her shoulders. “Please, Lara. After we’re cleared to go, get some rest. Alison is more than happy to take you in, why not enjoy it? Take some time, gather your bearings. Then go and retrieve the belt, and Zip and I will be more than happy to accompany you over the headset again if you wish us to. Just… Take it easy first, I’d hate to see you overwork yourself and get hurt because of it.” 

The grin returns to Zip’s face at long last. “Pretty much what he said. Just take a couple of days off, that’s all we ask. You can do your ass-kicking later.” 

“I concur,” Winston cuts in, looking more worried than ever. “Lady Croft, I must ask that you rest. Please.”

It’s at this time that the ambulance pulls in, along with the authorities and the fire service.

And it’s then that it hits Lara. Thirty one years of her life, rising up in smoke and flames. Too many memories had been made in this home- her first “dig” consisting of her father burying a piece of an artifact in the soil, the many times she ran up and down the stairs while her mother chased her, Winston comforting her and her father both after her mother disappeared… 

All of those memories were made there, and here it was, wrecked like the tombs she visited. After a long pause, Lara put her head down.

“Alright. But only a few days.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to include a few iconic lines in this one. Oh and fun fact- a doppelgänger is actually seen as a bringer of bad luck- I also heard someone say an omen of death? But let's just let that one sliiiiide ya? See you all next time!


End file.
